Wednesday, 14 October 2015

The legendary latitude 80º N :six locations on land.

This time Utima Thule will be travelling on a parallel to the equator, 80º to the North. From East to West, from Arctic Canada to Arctic Siberia.

Land at 80ºN. Few places on Earth reach that latitude:Axel Heiberg Island and Ellesmere Island, in Arctic Canada; northernmost Greenland, east and west; the Norwegian Svalbard Islands; Franz Josef and Severnaya Zemlya archipelagos, on the Siberian Arctic waters.

Flower plants can grow at 80º N, during the precious but short spring-summer months, like these poppies in Svalbard.

Let's start in Axel Heiberg, one of the northernmost islands of the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The arctic desert terrain was chosen as a good approach to Mars surface and adequate for tests and training in similar conditions. So, NASA installed a base there - the MARS station ("McGill Arctic Research Station"), near the 80º N latitude.

One of he driest regions on Earth - rain is short and occasional.

'Lost Hammer' spring is a case study - methan-eating bacteria can survive there at -60º in extreme hypersaline water and without oxygen !

But also in Svalbard there is another reddish ground where NASA is testing for the Mars expedition: the Bockfjorden and the surrounding red sandstone mountains.

Bockfjorden, at 80ºN, is an intriguing place where hot meets cold. The ice sheet is gone, dry and cold environment coexist, hot springs still simmer, exhaling gases from Earth's mantle. Shaped by volcanism, ice, and liquid water, the place reminds of how Mars might have once been.

The Sverrefjell volcano created this unique Arctic evironment.

One of several hot thermal sources created by the Sverrefjel.

AMASE expedition testing a robot.

Franz Josef Land

These very very remote islands are mostly north of the 80th parallel, far from the Siberian Arctic coast. Bell island is on the spot, exactly at 80º.

Bell Island has also fascinated arctic explorers and scientists.

Nagurskoye, Alexandra Land island.

This Russian base, at 81º N, was longtime uncared-for, but is presently a beauty among its peers.

There are few spots on the planet more suited to a science fiction movie.

Spectacular.

Severnaya Zemlyais still more isolated, south of nowhere. Perfect for some misanthrope to build a hut far from any civilization, up in the Russian high Arctic. Surely there is a station, a meteorological station, at Golomyanniy, 79º 33' N, on Sredniy Island, where Russia is building a larger military base.

The station at Golomyanniy works since 1954.

The chief meteorologist

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Surprisingly, animals - some of them quite large ! - live at this latitude: